1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of pest killing devices, and more specifically, to a heated enclosure for killing bed bugs harbored on the outside of luggage or other items.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bed bugs have been making a re-appearance in recent years as a pest species that can inhabit bedding and bite people as they sleep. Sometimes these bugs find their way from the bedding or wherever luggage is stored and crawl onto luggage where they can hide in the external crevices and overlapping flaps of luggage. Bed bugs can then crawl from one luggage item to another while carried in an airplane cargo hold, or cab, or shuttle or any other location where luggage is stored.
It is known that beg bugs, from nymph to adult, cannot withstand temperatures over 120 degrees F. It is also known that UV radiation kills germs. It would therefore be in a person's best interest to heat a luggage item to the desired kill temperature, and to treat the outer surface with UV light so that the bed bugs and other germs or bacteria will not be accidentally brought from one environment to another. For example, this can be done from a home environment to a hotel room or vice versa. There have been numerous specialty heating ovens designed for various purposes. For example W Metzger's U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,279 for curing coated substrates, or S Kiwokawa's U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,712 for drying objects.
However, no one to date has designed a heated enclosure specifically designed to hold a plurality of luggage items, and to evenly heat those luggage items for a pre-selected time and temperature for the purpose of killing bed bugs.